ND/Miscellaneous World Details
Physical Phenomena In general, it would be a mistake to assume that the game is set in a universe with physical laws identical to that of the real world's, though for most purposes in the game they have similar effects (aside from magic, obviously). However, the world might be flat or the moon might not be separated from the world by a vacuum and close enough to be accessed by a flyer with sufficient endurance. Prevailing Winds For most of the continent, prevailing winds come out of the east and blow west. Southernmost sees prevailing winds out of the west and blowing east. The boundary between the two areas is around Cape Har in Hanist, and the winds blow mostly south off the coast. Calendar For simplicity, the calendar is 12 months, with each month being four weeks (28 days). The Moon The world has a single moon with a 32 day phase cycle. The first full moon of 508 ANI was on January 6th, and the second, February 10th, was the day that the Legions left . The lunar cycle is regular, repeating the dates of the new and full moons every two years. The following table shows the new moons for 508 ANI and 509 ANI. It can also be read as the full moon dates for 507 ANI and 508 ANI Seismology, cyclonic winds and natural disasters Earthquakes are rare, occasionally experienced along the western edge of the . Typhoons and tropical storms affect the coasts almost seasonally, with two to five major storms in summer through autumn. About one in ten of those major storms grows to hurricane strength. (one every two to five years). Cape Har and Cape Sud in Hanist, on the boundary of two different wind streams, sees more storms, and worse storms, than the Zerniless coast. Shipwrecks are uncommon along Cape Har, but many ships either capsize in deep waters or are blown so far off course that they are never seen again. Flooding is fairly infrequent, usually associated with major transportation problems, and primarily affects the steppes of western , the Keventeen Basin of , and the northern end of Zerniless Imperial Highway and the southern areas of the . Landslides and avalanches occur regularly in the eastern sides of the high mountains of the . They occur in the winter for avalanches and the following spring with the snowmelt for landslides. Volcanic eruptions are extremely rare. No living humans have witnessed one. If the dwarfs know anything about the science of these events they have not made that knowledge widespread. Supernatural Materials The following materials are supernatural, and cannot come into existence without the presence of magic. However, after they come into existence, they are not magical themselves and continue to exist in the absence of mana and may not be dispelled. As supernatural materials, they do not necessarily follow the rules of modern material science. ;Adamant (Essential Stone) Adamant is a naturally occurring form of rock that is harder and stronger than any other rock. It can be carved using extremely hard steel tools or by orichalcum or orichalcum alloy. If subjected to certain alchemical reagants, it becomes thermosetting for a brief period and can be melted and reshaped over an extremely hot fire. Adamant is less dense than steel but slightly stronger. In addition to its use in armor or weapons, adamant is a useful material for many magical rituals. Adamant forms when black water running down a natural watercourse touches magma in the presence of squeaking air; the water must be carrying flakes of cadmium, copper, gold, mercury, nickel, palladium, platinum, and zinc. The s very carefully adjust the flow of underground rivers and creeks to redirect them near lava flows and pockets of squeaky air, and then seed them with metal flecks, but even so, adamant generation is a rare event. Uncut adamant is light gray in color, with some strata of dark gray, and mild faceting with smooth edges. Thermoset admanant is smooth and slightly lustrous, with brown, black, and dark red marbling against a charcoal gray. ;Celestial Steel (Star metal) Celestial steel is mined, refined, fabricated, or wished into existence by the . Some scholars believe that sky metal is the waste slag from refining celestial steel, though there is no strong evidence of this. Celestial steel is nearly as strong as orichalcum. Mortal smiths cannot work it, but the Gods or their most powerful divine servants can craft it into any style of armor, weapon, or tool. Celestial steel is a radiant metal, glowing with enough light to disperse any shadow. Its actual color is a bright silver-white, but the glow can be any color of the rainbow and the metal reflects the hue of the light. Worked celestial steel is always very smooth, with an almost liquid appearance, like quicksilver. ;Meteoric Iron (Sky metal) Meteorites are the source of this metal that is immune to magic. Skysteel can be worked with difficulty into tool, weapon, or armor quality steel. Aside from its non-magical nature, skysteel has the properties of iron and looks like any other iron: a lustrous gray material. ;Mithril (Moon metal) Mithril is a magical constructed metal, made from moon beams solidified in the presence of silver. It is stronger and less dense that steel. Mithril cannot be melted, welded, or otherwise worked with fire: doing so destroys the mithril, leaving only silver behind. The rituals that solidify the moon beams create long wires which are used to make mail armor, filigree, wire mesh, and other wire artifacts. Mithril is lustrous metal, always looking like highly polished silver. It glows faintly in counterphase to the Moon's cycles, so it is at its brightest under the new moon and the darkest under a full moon, but the effect is so minor at to be unnoticeable except in complete darkness. It does mean that mithril's luster is always a little more than other metals. ;Orichalcum (Essential metal) Orichalcum is an orange-copper metal, less dense than steel but considerably stronger. It cannot be worked into castings much larger than a handspan, but it still a desirable armor material for its great strength. The process by which orichalcum is made is unknown to . Orichalcum can be alloyed with iron and bronze, resulting in a metal that is stronger than either iron or steel but not quite as strong as orichalcum itself. Orichalcum alloy is easier to work and forge than orichalcum, including solid sheets up to a square yard in size. ;Soulsteel (Infernal Metal) Soulsteel is a magical constructed metal, believed to made from the souls of the damned. It is slightly stronger and slightly less dense than steel. It can easily be worked, either by a fire, by magical, or even mere physical effort, though it is hard to damage and resistant to fire when it is not being crafted. Soulsteel takes an edge easily and is hard to blunt, making for exceptional blades. Soul steel is a lustrous metal, though dark gray like weathered tin or lead. It has a vague red tinge, and has blood red highlights under direct light, regardless of the color of the light. When soulsteel is struck with great force, it rings with an unsettling noise reminiscent of tortured shrieks. ;Tharkibilaan (Void metal) Tharkibilzan (a Dwarf word meaning 'rays of silver shadowed') is a magical constructed metal, believed to made using the mithril creation rituals under a new moon, perhaps with certain other conditions. It is as strong and dense as steel. Like mithril, it is formed in long wires. Tharkibilzan rejects magic, reflecting any magic cast upon it back on the caster in a perverted and detrimental form. Tharkibilzan is a completely non-reflective metal, as black as as possible. It is somewhat creepy to look at, as it has no visible texture or facets and only be seen in contrast to the surrounding materials. Being near Tharkibilzan is disquieting and mildly distracting. Cultural Details Languages and Scripts ;Fae, Tzavarim, and Luminal The alphabet used by the , the alphabet used by the , and the alphabet used by the and Imperial Nobles are all related to each other in roughly the same way that historic Latin, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabets, respectively, are related to each other: there are some shared characters, but not enough for a reader of one of them to read another. The spoken language of the Fae, Tzavarim, and Imperial Nobles have about as much similarity as modern German and English: there are a few cognates and shared roots, but speakers of one language can't really communicate with speakers of the other. ;Dwarf The alphabet used by the s corresponds to the Fae, Tzavarim, and Luminal alphabets as Hangul would to Latin, Cyrillic, or Greek: a completely independent implementation of the concept. Spoken dwarfen shares some root words with the languages of the Fae and the Tzavarim, but again, not enough for any comprehension. ;Other Races Most other races, including humans, , , , , and , share a common language called Blesay. Blesay is related to the spoken Fae or Tzavarim languages as modern English is to Republican Latin or Ancient Greek: a few similar words here and there, but not enough to allow communication. It is descended from a creole created by the merger of the multiple human languages from , , and the ancient empire that existed where the is now. Local accents are common, but all orcs have roughly the same accent from their training in and their influence prevents the various accents from becoming unintelligible to each other. Blesay is written the Blesain script, which is related to the Fae or Luminal scripts as the Latin or Greek alphabets are to Futhark: some vague similarities at best. There are traces of an Orc native language in orc names and places names in , , and in Orc-built fortifications in the mountains conquered from the , but aside from those names, the orc language appears to be a dead language and orcs use Blesay for communication. Similarly, the pre-Blesay human languages only exist in the names of people and locations; none of them are spoken by anyone aside from a few scholars or very isolated communities. Minotaurs have a formal language, mostly used for philosophy, with a slightly different alphabet that compares to the Blesain script as Old Hungarian does to Futhark: many overlapping characters, enough to make things confusing. Formal Minotaur corresponds to the common speech as the Slavic languages do to modern English: aside from loanwords, the languages use different root words and grammar. The native language of the Reptilians can be rendered in the Blesain script about as well as Welsh can be rendered in Latin letters: poorly, and with very different meanings. Any older Reptilian scripts have been lost under the oppression of the . Native Reptilian speech is completely unintelligible to non-speakers, similar to the difference between modern English and some of the more obscure eight tone Chinese variants.